Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the management of information handling systems. More specifically, embodiments of the invention provide a system and method for automating the provision of social media product recommendations in an electronic commerce environment.
Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
These same information handling systems have played a key role in the rapid growth of electronic commerce on the Internet. In recent years, information handling systems have also been instrumental in the widespread adoption of social media into the mainstream of everyday life. Social media commonly refers to the use of web-based technologies for the creation and exchange of user-generated content for social interaction. As such, it currently accounts for approximately 22% of all time spent on the Internet.
One emerging aspect of electronic commerce is for users to use social media sites as a venue to review or recommend various products. Such reviews or recommendations may be provided in a variety of ways, including simple online forum or social media posts, to blog entries, video clips, and even dedicated websites. In some cases, the reviewer may provide a link to either a merchant's website, or a product details page, for the product they are reviewing or recommending. In other cases, a merchant may provide a link on their product details page to a reviewer or recommender.
However, such approaches typically require the viewer of the product reviews or recommendations to leave the social media site to visit the merchant's website or product details pages. Conversely, viewers of a merchant's product details pages may be required to leave to the merchant's website to view the reviews or recommendations of the product they were considering. Furthermore, the reviewer or recommender of the products is typically not provided the means to provide their reviews or recommendations on a merchant's product pages that are returned to a search engine in response to a search query.